Do Giant Oilfield Discoveries Fuel Internal Armed Conflicts?

Guy Michaels and Yu-Hsiang Lei

No 8620, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We use new data to examine the effects of giant oilfield discoveries around the world since 1946. On average, these discoveries increase per capita oil production and oil exports by up to 50 percent. But these giant oilfield discoveries also have a dark side: they increase the incidence of internal armed conflict by about 5-8 percentage points. This increased incidence of conflict due to giant oilfield discoveries is especially high for countries that had already experienced armed conflicts or coups in the decade prior to discovery.

Keywords: Armed conflict; Civil war; Natural resources; Petroleum; Resource curse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q33 Q34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-ene
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8620 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts? (2014)
Working Paper: Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts? (2014)
Working Paper: Do Giant Oilfield Discoveries Fuel Internal Armed Conflicts? (2011)
Working Paper: Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts? (2011)
Working Paper: Do Giant Oilfield Discoveries Fuel Internal Armed Conflicts? (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8620

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8620

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().